Later
by Supermorff
Summary: A tongue in cheek Smallville futurefic. Superhero Clark Kent talks to Lex Luthor, his public relations officer, about their lives and the paths they took.


I personally believe that Smallville futurefic is bizarre, since - rather obviously, in my opinion - Smallville futurefic should really be termed Superman presentfic. Or something like that. So, in order to express my opinions on the matter, I wrote a Smallville futurefic of my own. Clark and Lex are thinking back on their lives.

**Spoiler Warning: **Not too many spoilers, but you may not get all the jokes unless you have some understanding of both the television series Smallville and generic Superman continuity.

**Disclaimer:** There's two characters that appear in this: Clark Kent and Lex Luthor. I own neither. I'm surprised that you didn't know that already, but okay. They, and any other people, places or situations they may happen to mention are (I'm quite certain) property of DC Comics.

* * *

Clark looked out over the rooftops of Metropolis City at the red sunset. Quite breathtaking.

"What do you think?" asked Lex Luthor, his public relations officer.

"It's beautiful," admitted Clark. Lex owned the building, along with half the city it seemed. He'd inherited it after his father's death from a liver disease some twenty years earlier.

"You should bring Lana some time. I'm sure she'd love it too." Clark nodded. Lex was probably right. He sometimes knew Clark's wife better than he did, which would have been enough to make any normal man jealous. But Clark Kent wasn't any normal man. He was an alien, from a planet long destroyed. And he had abilities that no human possessed. Over the years he'd brought peace to Metropolis, and then expanded to other cities. Lex had been with him all the way. Since Clark had graduated from high school, the two had only become closer.

Lex passed Clark a champagne glass and motioned to a chair. There was still a while to go before the Sun finally disappeared, so they could sit back and enjoy the view.

"Do you ever wonder what things would be like if we'd made different choices in our lives?" Clark asked after a while. He didn't really know where the question had come from, but it was there in his mind so he asked it.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean… what if we'd never worked out our crime fighting system? I might have had to fly around looking for people to help."

"That really wouldn't have been a good way to help in other cities - too far apart."

"Exactly. Or what would have happened if I'd never married Lana?"

"Oh, that's easy. You would have found someone else."

"This from the man who's had four wives already?"

"Don't get me wrong. I loved every one of those women in their own way." Clark smiled to himself.

"Right."

"And I only left two of them. The other two left me."

"I know."

"Okay then."

That seemed to be the end of it for a while, but the question was there now, and neither of them could stop thinking about it.

"I think there's another question to ask, too," said Lex after a time.

"What's that?"

"What if things beyond our control had happened differently?"

"Sort of like… if Krypton had never blown up?"

"No, no. I couldn't even imagine that. My life would be so boring if you weren't here, Clark."

"So what did you mean?"

"Like… what if it hadn't been the Kents that found you when you landed on Earth? Or… what if my father had found out about your powers before I did?"

"Or what if you'd never found out about my powers? What if that day at the plant had never happened?"

"There's a thought…" Lex put a hand on his chin. "That moment brought my entire life into clarity. Who knows what could have happened if you hadn't had to save me from that explosion?"

"It makes you think."

"It does. I wondered what would have happened if LuthorCorp hadn't gone out of business, too. I wouldn't have been able to take such an active role in your superheroing, that's for certain." Clark gave him a look. He didn't like to be called a superhero, even by Lex. Lex, on the other hand, didn't notice. "You know what else could have changed our lives drastically?" That instantly brought Clark out of his mood.

"No."

"What if that journalist had never caught you on camera?" Clark laughed lightly.

"It's funny; Chloe asked me almost exactly the same question the other week."

"Really?"

"Actually, it was more along the lines of 'If you still had to keep your powers a secret, how would you cope?'."

"What did you say?"

"I guess I would just have done what I'd done before. I'd try to explain away everything that happened as luck. I certainly wouldn't be able to help as many people as I do now."

"Unless you wore a mask or something."

"Hey, yeah. I could have been like the Lone Ranger. Why didn't we do that?" Lex chuckled softly, which he'd only started doing recently, since he'd been freed of the life imposed on him by his father. "I think I prefer this, though," Clark continued. "Not having to hide is very liberating."

"I can imagine. It must have been terrible for you all those years when nobody else knew your secret." Clark held his champagne glass aloft in the fading light.

"To things working out for the best."

The glasses rang out a high note as they knocked together.

Everything was good in the world.

How boring.

* * *

It's short - perhaps a teensy bit too short - but I think it adequately makes fun of Smallville futurefic. Hence it is a success.


End file.
